Hi, I'm Larry.
I design lighting for moments of awe and wonder, build tools that solve problems and feel right to use, and chase cinematic moments through photo and video.
Pursuing my Masters in Information Systems · Southern California
WELCOME
Hi, I'm Larry! Currently I'm a Talent Acquisition Coordinator at Behr Paint, where I focus on the onboarding experience, building the internal tools and dashboards that make HR run more smoothly, and keeping HR data accurate and secure. I graduated from UC Riverside with a degree in Sociology, where I also worked as an HR Operations Assistant supporting campus hiring and personnel management, and I'm now finishing my Master's in Information Systems at Northeastern University.
My passion lives where creativity and tech meet. I'm one of the Lighting Directors for Stream of Praise (讚美之泉), designing immersive visual experiences for their live productions and music videos. At Beloved Church I serve as a camera operator and broadcast director for our Sunday livestream, and occasionally mix front-of-house audio for our services.
Outside of work, I'm always building something. I run a self-hosted homelab that powers apps I've built to fit my own life. Sage, my personal finance platform, is designed around the way I think about money and how I spend it. I love the craft of taking an idea and shaping it into something real, whether that's an app, the lighting for a new song, or chasing a sound when I'm mixing live audio. Lately I've been turning that same instinct toward photo and video, shooting my travels and teaching myself to color grade as I work out a visual style of my own.
WORK
Oct 2024 – Present
Talent Acquisition Coordinator
Build the internal tools behind hiring: a Power BI leave & return-to-work dashboard across 20+ facilities, a weekly Workday-to-Power BI reporting pipeline for senior leadership, and an automated new-hire onboarding system across SharePoint, Power Apps, and Power Automate.
Dec 2021 – Sept 2024
HR Operations Assistant
Automated HR operations across 15+ departments: interview scheduling via Power Automate, DocuSign onboarding for 120+ employees, and Excel hiring-analytics dashboards for senior management.
EDUCATION
Expected Spring 2027
M.S. Information Systems
Completed 2024
B.A. Sociology
Stream of Praise (讚美之泉) is one of the largest Mandarin-Chinese Christian music ministries and I've been their Show Designer and Lighting Director for more than 5 years. I design the lighting for their live productions and music video recordings, shaping the atmosphere of the room to create space for heartfelt worship and lean into moments of awe and reverence.
These productions reach Chinese communities across the world, with Stream of Praise's YouTube channel growing to over 800,000 subscribers and surpassing a billion total views.
Photography
I've been capturing moments during my recent trips to Japan, Seoul, and New York. I'm drawn to moments with a cinematic quality to them, spending as much time in the edit as behind the camera, developing a visual style of my own. Check out my journey at @larry_tsao_images on Instagram.
The camera
The camera came out of my most recent trip to Japan. A friend who'd just gotten into photography wanted to browse a used camera shop in Osaka, and while he looked at lenses I stumbled on a used Canon R50V at a price too good to pass up. I grabbed it, then found a Sigma 18-50mm f/2.8 for an even better deal and walked out with both. That's what pushed me to take shooting and editing seriously.
FEATURED BUILD
A travel app concept I designed for my UI/UX course that turns the places you save from TikTok and Reels into a plannable trip, wireframed across discovery, day-by-day itinerary routing, and place detail.
A self-hosted personal finance platform I designed and run. It pulls my transactions into one ledger with budgeting, recurring detection, and travel tagging. I built it because I wanted full ownership of my financial data and a tool shaped around how I actually budget.
A hybrid homelab spanning a cloud VPS, a NAS, and small nodes over a Tailscale mesh, hosting my self-hosted apps, scheduled automations, and backups. It is my personal production environment for everything I build.
A daily routine that scans award-flight availability and surfaces the best redemptions to a Discord feed and a live page. I built it to catch high-value award space without checking manually every day.
A weekly used-EV buy-timing tracker that follows price signals across several models over time and tells me whether now is a good time to buy. I built it to make a big purchase with data instead of guessing.
Designed and operated lighting for one of Crafted Child's live shows, creating a visual atmosphere that matches the mood and energy of their alt-rock sound.
I currently serve at Beloved Church running Sunday livestreams as both camera operator and broadcast director. It's been rewarding learning the rhythm of live video and catching 'the money shot.'
Led the AV team for campus ministry events, running sound, visuals, and production for all our events. I loved leading a close-knit team where I got to mentor others and build genuine friendships beyond our events.
Mixing live audio for Sunday worship services and exploring mixing/mastering in Logic Pro. Focused on translating the team's energy into mixes that are clear, distraction-free, and spiritually engaging.
Second version of my personal site built with React and Tailwind. A space to experiment beyond basic web design and build something dynamic that could grow into a blog, portfolio, and creative space all in one.
My first attempt at building a website using HTML and CSS. It started as an assignment for an intro CS class but became my gateway into web design.
Built my own Sketchybar setup to customize my Mac's menu bar, inspired by others but tailored to my own workflow and style.
Built custom PCs for myself, friends, and family, handling parts selection and full assembly to match their needs. My current rig is a small-form-factor build that balances function and aesthetics, and working around tight spaces and limited part options made it a satisfying challenge.
Turned my PC into a macOS machine as a personal challenge and fun tech experiment.
Build custom mechanical keyboards as a hobby, experimenting with switches, layouts, and mods to dial in the creamy, thocky sound I like. I've put together boards for myself, friends, and family, and enjoy how customizable and hands-on the hobby is.
Designed a full brand concept for a fictional, minimalist coffee shop as part of a design class. I wanted it to feel modern and cozy at the same time, the kind of place you'd want to spend a slow morning in.
Designed a minimal, personal logo inspired by the form of an eagle. It came out of a casual Illustrator session that turned into a design I liked.
An interactive group-trip planner I built for a holiday with friends: pick a date window, watch each person’s PTO cost update in real time, and generate a boarding pass for a randomized two-leg itinerary.
The brand identity I designed for my finance app, Sage: a minimal penguin mascot, a warm sage-green and Nord-blue palette, and a consistent visual system carried across every surface of the app.
Want to talk lighting, a build, or just trade travel photos?
Reach out.
